2011 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport 6.2 V8 from North America

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Faults:

General Comments:

I bought this Corvette during the GM employee pricing event, since it was over $20k cheaper than list.

The 6.2 V8 LS3 unit is one of the best engines out there; bulletproof, sounds great, loads of power and torque, and will handle almost unlimited tweaks.

Now, why can't Chevrolet build a Corvette interior to do that engine justice? The dash appears to have come out of a Daewoo, with cheap, crappy, ill fitting plastics everywhere, buttons that feel like they will break if you even look at them, and a LCD dash display that looks to have been copied from a Citroen I had about 15 years ago.

The air conditioning could be better too; with the engine so close, it does get more than a little hot in the cabin on sunny days; it would better to have air conditioning that didn't feel like an asthmatic midget blowing on you through a straw from inside the dash.

Those gripes aside, the Corvette is an absolute hoot to drive, with blistering acceleration, decent handling in sport mode (though expect to pay for dental repairs after using this, as your teeth will spend most of their time being jarred together every time you hit even the slightest of bumps), and a semi-auto that responds as well as any non-dual clutch system out there.

The head-up display works well (though the G-meter is a bit gimmicky), and I never get tired of the burbling snarl that accompanies a quick jab on the push button start.

20th Jan 2012, 11:11

I saw some fantastic matched aftermarket seats and interior at the all Corvette show Nov 6 at Lenape Park in West Chester Pa. The price of the new power seats a mere 7k; similar to the European exotics. Best leather seats I ever sat in and great bolsters. The vendor there had matched stitched door and dash components, which matches the exotics when you are buying new. Usually the first upgrades are intakes, then exhaust, wheels, new calipers and on and on.